


Drifters

by GabrielQuill



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Angst, Angst and Humor, Anxiety, Anxiety Disorder, Being Lost, Depression, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Hallucinations, Hearing Voices, Humor, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Romance, Smut, Survival, Wilderness, Wilderness Survival, personal assistant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-07-28 23:28:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7661383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GabrielQuill/pseuds/GabrielQuill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You’re acting like it’s MY fault that Helios was destroyed! It’s probably your own damn fault! Just like everything else!” Rhys shouted at Jack. Deep in the back of his mind he knew that he was going to get killed over this but he honestly didn’t care. He was sick of the way Jack was treating him. Ever since they’ve been on this shit hole known as Pandora he’s been Jack’s personal punching bag.<br/>Jack stepped closer with fire in his eyes but spoke so calmly that it actually sent a chill down Rhys’ spine. “Wanna say that one more time, cupcake?” Rhys noticed that Jack was reaching for the pistol at his hip and knew it was too late to give any apologizes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was-or seemed like a normal day at Helios with the employes were doing what they were suppose to be doing, Jack was sleeping in his huge chair in his office while Rhys was doing all the paperwork. Again. It was a normal thing that Rhys was use to by now, but it kinda annoyed him since he hated doing the paperwork as much as Jack did. Especially since it was work that he was suppose to do. Not him.

Jack had his feet kicked up on the desk while snoring loudly, so loudly that it was echoing through the room. Rhys walked up to the desk and couldn’t help but smile at his boyfriend over how cute he was when he was asleep. Even if he wouldn’t admit it. He did have a reputation to keep after all. What would happen if everyone on Helios knew that their boss turned out to be a huge teddy bear underneath that tough exterior.

“C’mon, Jack it’s time to wake up,” Rhys said as he slapped the files down in front of him on the desk. “Jaaack…” He had whined when that didn’t seem to work. Rhys pouted as he made his way over to Jack, he climbed into his lap to get his attention little did he know that Jack was trying to keep his grin hidden. “Wake upppp.” He buried his face in Jack’s shoulder.

Jack chuckled, pressing his hand against the center of Rhys’ back to pull him closer. “It better be important because I was having a good dream. You were in it.”

A blush crawled up Rhys’ face along with a smile. “What? Really?”

“I was trying to murder you.” The smile had turned to a frown when Rhys lifted his head up and looked at Jack. “Don’t. Don’t give me that look. I was trying to make it as quick as possible.”

For some reason that made Rhys feel special since Jack always went out of his way to make sure people die as slowly and painfully as possible. It was just how he did things and seemed to get great enjoyment from it.

“I don’t remember what you did to piss me off. I’m pretty sure it involved you eating some of my food or something, I dunno. The point is you were killed quickly.”

“Uh… thank… you?”

With a small laugh Jack cupped Rhys’ face in his hands then pressed his lips against the younger man’s whose blush couldn’t get any deeper at this point. How did he get so lucky to end up dating his idol, especially after everything that happened between them before leading up to this point. As soon as Jack was uploaded into a new body Rhys was sure that he was going to get murdered for almost destroying Helios. In his defense, however, Jack was trying to kill him and was doing whatever he could to keep himself alive. After exchanging a few choice words with a couple of punches to the face they had finally agreed to let this pass, that’s when Jack decided that as a repayment to Rhys not telling anyone about him living in his head he made his personal assistant. It was quite an experience to say the least, but they’ve bonded a lot, started dating and recently Rhys moved into Jack’s penthouse and life was great.

In a single movement Jack had surprised Rhys by throwing him down on his desk, pinning his arms down on the cold surface. When Rhys felt Jack starting to suck and bite down on the sensitive skin at his neck he let out a quiet moan. This wasn’t the right time to be doing this since Jack had a meeting with the board in less than ten minutes, but his excuse was: “I’m the fuckin’ CEO, I can show up whenever I damn well please.” Although most people he had meetings with didn’t like when he used that excuse they couldn’t say anything about it in fear that they would be shot on the spot then the meeting would just move on like nothing ever happened.

“J-Jack. Uhnn…” Rhys let out a moan when Jack grabbed his cock through his pants causing him to bite down on his lip. “M-meeting.You have a- Uhnn....”

A huge smile crossed Jack’s face as he teasingly pushing himself into Rhys, causing the younger man under him to let out another moan. “You know what I’m gonna say about that, right?” Rhys nodded while his face was turning red. “I’m the-”

“CEO and you can show up whenever you want,” Rhys finished for him.

Jack grabbed Rhys’ tie, jerking it roughly to force him to sit up on the desk. He started kissing him roughly, forcing his tongue into Rhys’ mouth. The moment was perfect in Rhys’ eyes, it felt like nothing could break it. Y’know, until something did ruin it. The floor- scratch that; all of Helios had started shaking.

“What the hell was that?” Jack wondered aloud after pulling away from Rhys.

While Jack was looking through his computer Rhys looked out the large window that was positioned just behind the desk. There was a large cloud of smoke rising out from underneath Helios. What was that? A fire? There was another violent shake rupturing through Helios, this time it almost caused Rhys to fall to the floor. Sirens had started blaring through the whole station, yeah this clearly wasn’t good.

“Um… What the hell is happening?” Rhys asked Jack, clinging onto his arm.

“DAMMIT!” Jack shouted, slamming his fist down on the keyboard. “Look at this!” He turned the screen so Rhys could see it. It showed Helios with some areas of the base blurred out in a bright red, meaning that area of the base was destroyed.

“Wh...What’s going on?”

“If I knew…” Jack stopped his smartass remark knowing that this wasn’t really the time for that. “Look, we need to go before we get killed along with the others.” He pushed a button underneath his desk to prepare his personal escape pod that could fit the two of them.

“Wait… What about Vaughn and Yvette?! I can’t leave them behind!”

“Rhys they’re probably already dead! Let’s go!”

“I can’t leave without them, Jack… There could be a chance that-”

“For fucks sake, Rhys!” He reached out and grabbed the younger man’s arm before he got to the office doors. “You are going to get yourself killed for nothing! We’re leaving!”

“I can’t!”

Jack gritted his teeth, jerking Rhys’ arm towards him causing him to yelp in surprise as he was forced towards the escape pod. He tried fighting the older man off his arm so he can go find his best friends but Jack was so much stronger compared to him. He kept trying to fight out of Jack’s grasp until he was forcefully shoved into the escape pod then followed behind him.

“You can be such an idiot!” Jack snapped as he programed the pod to land on Pandora. “They’re dead, Rhys. Accept it.”

Tears started to fill up in Rhys’ eyes over the thought of never seeing his friends again. They’ve been friends for the longest of time and couldn’t picture a life without them. Rhys wished that just sometimes Jack would be a little sympathetic over what he was feeling right now, but then he remembered that almost everyone in his life walked out on him so he probably couldn’t care less.

“Why are you ignoring me?”

“‘m not ignoring you… I just have nothing to say to you…” Jack rolled his eyes as he sat back while they were getting sent off to Pandora. “I’m also not very happy with you either…”

“Why? Because I saved you from killing yourself?” Rhys was silent. “Don’t. Ignore me.” He waited for a while, but when Rhys didn’t answer him again he smacked him in the face.

“Don’t hit me!”

“Don’t ignore me!”

Rhys folded his arms then glanced out the window to avoid eye contact with Jack, but then his mouth dropped in shock. Helios was… destroyed. There was one more explosion that sent the moon base into pieces. God, how was he suppose to feel? Happy he got out alive or upset that his friends were killed? Maybe a mixture of both?

Jack must have seen the distressed look on his face because he held out his arms saying: “C’mere kitten.” Rhys didn’t waste any time crawling into the warm, safe arms. He started rubbing Rhys’ back to try to calm him down. “It’s okay, Rhysie. We got out.” This time when Rhys didn’t say anything he didn’t get mad, instead he let out a sigh. “Just rest, kiddo.”

 

* * *

 

The trip to Pandora was a quiet and peaceful one. Well, that would be a lie. It started off like that, until something started to malfunction. The escape pod started to violently shake, kinda like what happened at Helios, it woke Rhys up with a start. When he looked out the window he noticed how close they were to the ground of Pandora. Yet they weren’t slowing down. This wasn’t going to end well.

“Jack what are-” Before he could finish what he was saying, the older man pinned him down on the pods floor. No matter how much Rhys was trying to fight him off-again- he still couldn’t. “Get off!”

“Shut up, kiddo. I’m keeping you safe.”

“Keeping me-”

The escape pod slammed down on the desert ground destroying it in seconds. Rhys was sent flying away from the wreck getting sand in his eyes and mouth. Eugh… As he slowly sat up he couldn’t help but stare at the destroyed pod, it was caught on fire but he luckily walked away with only scrapes. Thanks to Ja- Jack. Where was Jack?

“Jack!” He called as he stood up on shaky legs. He was so anxious it was unreal. “Jack, this isn’t funny!” He called again as he walked over to the wreckage. “I-... Jack?!”

There was the CEO laying on the sanded ground with blood coming from his forehead and soaking through his clothes. Rhys knelt down next to him, lifting his head up. What would he do without him in this wasteland? He wouldn’t survive a day. Hell, not even five minutes.

“Jack… Please wake up.”

He grunted as he slowly opened his eyes. “That… was one hell of a ride, Rhysie,” he said with a forced smirk before coughing up some sand from the back of his throat. “I do have an issue.”

“What’s that?” Jack lifted up his Hyperion sweater to reveal that he had a large chunk of metal stuck  in his side. “W-”

“It kinda hurts, so if you could pull it out for me that would be great.”

“Right. Okay.”

Rhys placed his shaking hands over the metal that was actually a lot larger than it looks and trying to pull it out of Jack but that didn’t work very well. It barely moved yet caused Jack to scream in pain. It was in there too deep, so pulling it out wasn’t a good idea. One wrong move and Jack could bleed out.

“Why are you being a wuss?” Jack snapped on accident. “Just pull it out!”

“I can’t!” Rhys shrieked. “It’s in too deep!”

Jack grunted as he pulled himself up from the ground, using Rhys as support. “ _I’ll_ do it…”

“No, c’mon. Please don’t. We’ll-we’ll find someone else to do it!”

“Do you see a doctor nearby?!”

“We’ll… find a settlement. There has to be a doctor there, okay? Just… does it hurt too much?” Jack just glared at him. “Just hang on, okay? I promise you’ll be okay.”

Rhys started heading them both North. They would have to find a settlement nearby.


	2. Chapter 2

It felt like they have been walking for days when in reality it’s been about an hour, maybe a little over that. The sand was starting to heat up excessively due to the sun high in the sky and it was making them feel extremely thirsty and irritable. Especially Jack, even though he wouldn’t admit how much pain he was in, he really wanted to rip the metal from his side to use to stab whatever was responsible for what happened to Helios. Who was he suppose to blame for this? He had no clue where to begin with this but once he got on track he would murder whatever was responsible.

Jack moved his hand away from around the metal at his side, his hand was covered in blood. This wound was just getting worse and worse. It wouldn’t be long before he would die of bloodloss, the world was spinning around him and he felt like he needed to throw up. Jack tried to tell Rhys that he couldn’t walk much further but no sound came out. His entire body was starting to burn, causing him to fall to his knees finally vomiting up some blood. Rhys turned around to see Jack vomiting up more blood, his eyes went wide as he knelt down next to him, putting a hand on his back to give him some sense of comfort. 

 “I can’t keep going, kiddo,” Jack finally admitted as he spit out some excess blood that was lingering in his mouth. “It hurts too much to walk.”

“W-what am I supposed to do?!” 

“You are gonna keep going and if you find a doctor or something you bring them back to me.” 

“No, that’s a terrible idea! You don’t know what’s out here, even worse, you’re hurt and couldn’t fend anything off.” 

“Have any better ideas, kiddo?” Jack almost snapped. 

Rhys thought about it, there weren’t much options for them except for keep pushing through. “We have to keep going Jack.” Rhys stood up. “I’ll help you the best I can but we have to keep going.” 

He had tried reaching down to help Jack stand up but he kept swatting him away. “Touch me and I’ll kill you.” Rhys ignored his protests as he wrapped his arms around Jack’s shoulders to help him stand up, being careful to not accidently touch the shard of metal that was sticking out of his side.  He grunted in pain when he finally made it to his feet, he had to use Rhys as support. “God I hate you sometimes.”

“You’ll feel better when we find somewhere to help you.” 

“If not I’m gonna shoot you in the head.”

“Deal.”

* * *

They must have been walking for a good hour before they finally came up to a settlement. Finally. As they were getting closer to the entrance Jack was starting to have cold feet by being his paranoid self.

“Shut up, Jack. You’re not changing my mind,” Rhys said firmly as they entered the settlement. 

“Bandits, kiddo. They could be fuckin’ bandits!” 

“Would you shut your mouth?” Rhys hissed when he noticed some of the people nearby stare at them after Jack had said that. “They’re not bandits, it’s a normal town. Just relax, okay? We’ll find someone to help you.” 

They were stopped in their tracks when a bigger, buffer guy stood in their way holding a gun. This wasn’t going to be good. Rhys and Jack looked at each other then to the man who was standing in their way. Not long after a couple of more people holding guns stood by the man. 

“Handsome Jack,” the buffer man said with a deep voice. “You have some nerve showing your face around Pandora after all that you did to us.” 

Jack had a smirk on his face that showed that he was about to give a smartass remark but Rhys started talking before Jack made this worse for them. “Look, we just need a doctor, okay? We’re not here to cause any trouble.”

“It’s too late for that since he started destroying Pandora, don’tcha think?” 

“Shot them, Isaac!” Someone from the crowd shouted to the man who was named Isaac. “Make him pay for what he did to us!” Someone else shouted.

Jack so much wanted to give these idiots a piece of his mind but he was in too much pain to talk knowing that if he did he may cough up some more blood. He refused to look weak in front of these idiots. So it was best left up to Rhys to do the talking since he was better at convincing people to not kill them than he was. 

“Okay, yes. Jack did some… stupid things for stupid reasons.” Jack glared at Rhys who just ignored it. “But-” Isaac just pointed his gun at Jack. “Okay, but-” He tried again. 

“Either you guys turn around and get the fuck out of here or I’ll send you to your graves.”

“Don’t let these little punks scare you, Rhys,” Jack said with blood trickling down the corner of his mouth. “Ignore them, kiddo. Find me a doctor they won’t do anything.” Isaac stepped forward and put the barrel of the gun to Jack’s head who just smiled in response, showing bloody teeth. “Do it, I dare ya.” 

Just as Isaac was about to pull the trigger, a man came up behind him, put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him away. “That’s enough, Isaac,” the man in the white lab coat said firmly. 

“Don’t you know who this guy is, Anton? He’s-”

“Handsome Jack. I know. I’m sure everyone on this planet knows who this is,” Anton said as he watched Jack and Rhys before letting out a sigh. “They said they needed a doctor, right?”

“You’re not serious…” 

“I am serious, Isaac. I believe that anyone who asks for help deserves it, no matter what they had done in the past.” Anton turned to look back at the crowd of people who were staring back at him with disbelief in their eyes. “Go on, all of ya. Go back to what you were doing.” 

There was a murmur in the crowd as everyone went off to their own business. Isaac glared at Anton before walking away. He couldn’t believe that he was going to help out this murderer… But he supposed he had his reasons… 

 “You gonna take us to a doctor or what?” Jack snapped at Anton who was just eyeing the metal that was sticking out of his side still. “Because I feel like I’m about to pass out.” 

“I’m the doctor in this settlement, I’ll take you to my office and patch you up.” 

“That’d be great, thank you,” Rhys said as he started following the doctor with Jack still holding onto him. 

Anton unlocked the door to his house/office and lead the others inside. He directed Jack to lay down on a blood stained bed on the opposite side of the room. As hesitant as Jack was he did what he was told to anyways even though a million thoughts were running through his head. If this doctor wanted to he could have killed him and before he realized it it would have been too late. 

“If you see this guy trying anything funny Rhysie, you kill him. Got it?” Jack said as he took off his layers of shirts to reveal the wound that was actually worse than they had thought since it was starting to get infected. 

Rhys didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to screw anything up with this. Anton put on gloves before picking up a syringe filled with anesthetic. 

“This is probably going to hurt,” Anton muffled from underneath his mask as he walked over to his patient. “Just warning you now.”

“You are  _ not  _ suppose to tell me that before you- OW!” Jack yelled loudly when Anton pricked him with the needle, injecting the anesthesia into the area around his wound. “I wasn’t ready yet!” 

“Jack just let him do what he has to…” Rhys said as he grabbed onto his hand to help comfort him. 

Anton started lightly pushing on the metal, watching Jack’s face to see if there were any signs of pain.”Do you feel anything or is it numb?” 

“Just do what you gotta do,” was all that Jack said as he gripped tighter on Rhys’ hand. 

Anton grabbed a pair of medical pliers, clamping them down on the metal in Jack’s side while holding a white cloth in the other hand. He gently yet quickly started working it out from his side, using the white cloth to catch any blood that started pouring out from the wound. Jack started squirming under him, not because it hurt but because it felt weird getting pushing all around. Anton placed a firm hand on Jack’s chest as he yanked the metal out then placed it on the table next to the bed. It was actually a lot bigger than they had first thought turning out to be seven inches in length. The doctor started to quickly stitch up the wound before bandaging it up. 

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Anton asked as he slipped off the bloody gloves, throwing them out in the trash can. “You’re lucky you got in before it got seriously infected.” 

“Yeah… Thanks for that, doc,” Jack said as he sat up on the bed. “What do I owe ya?” 

“Ah, don’t worry about it. Just don't shoot up the place, okay?”

“Deal.” Jack turned to face Rhys who smiled weakly at him. “You alright, kiddo?” 

“I’m fine. Just happy you’re okay.” Rhys leaned his head against Jack’s shoulder.

“I told you I would be. We should get going.”

“Going?” Anton said as he looked out the window. “It’s getting kinda late, don’tcha think? It gets rather bad out there after dark. Don’t want to risk your stitches popping open while you’re out and about. Just stay here for the night.”

“No, I think we’ll be-”

“He’s right Jack,” Rhys interrupted him. “It wouldn’t hurt and we can leave first thing in the morning.” 

Jack glared at him. “I think staying in a town where almost everyone wants me dead isn’t a good idea, cupcake.” 

“It’ll be fine. I have a room in the back you guys can use.” 

* * *

In the back spare room that Anton let them use was pitch black now that it was almost one in the morning. Jack was holding Rhys in his arms while they were laying on the bed together. Rhys was clinging onto Jack tight as he was going over the entire day through his head for what seemed like the 100th time and every time his thoughts went back to Vaughn and Yvette. A tear ran down his cheek, burying his face on Jack’s side who could feel the wetness from Rhys’ eyes.

“You alright there, pumpkin?” Jack asked as he started to rub his back. He just shook his head. “What’s wrong? Still thinking about your friends?”

“Yeah…” Rhys sat up, looking at Jack through red and puffy eyes. “I could have saved them, Jack.”

“How many times have I told you? You couldn’t have done anything. There was nothing you could do.” 

“What do we do now?” Rhys wanted to get off the subject as quickly as possible. “I mean, do we just wander around Pandora now or what?” 

Jack was silent for a moment, it was clear that he hadn’t even thought about it. What were they going to do? Jack was clearly well known so they couldn’t just go anywhere they wanted to unless they wanted to get Jack killed. Wait a minute… 

“I got it. I know what we’re going to do!” Jack said suddenly and loud enough to cause Rhys to jump. “Atlas.” 

“What about it?” 

“We rebuild it. There is an Atlas building somewhere down here if I remember correctly.”

“What about Hyperion? Why don’t we just-”

“Rhysie, Rhysie, Rhysie. I’ve made up my mind. We find the building, build that shit up and boom! Back on top.”    


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for taking so long to update! I started a new job two weeks ago and they loaded me in with hours, and I'm starting college on Tuesday and ah. My schedule is a mess. Just know next chapter you will get some fluff, so that's something to look forward to.

Jack and Rhys had a nice of peaceful sleep without any of the towns folk trying to come and kill them like they had expected. In fact, Jack was expecting that to happen so much that he prepared himself by loading up all the guns that he had and kept them close. He was prepared for anything and probably a little more paranoid than he should be. Who knows? Maybe Jack’s paranoia would be in their favor sometime. 

With a yawn Rhys rolled over burying his face into Jack’s side with a small smile dancing on his lips. At first Rhys forgot where he was. He had thought that the whole them being stranded on Pandora and Helios being destroyed was all a dream. It seemed like a normal morning with him waking up before Jack and Rhys ended up snuggling up closer to his boyfriend until they were both awake then went to work. It was the small moments that Rhys yearned for.

He was totally convinced that the other day was a nightmare until he heard something outside. Rhys untangled himself from the blankets and Jack’s limbs, and when he sat up he had to squint due to the sun pouring into the room that blinded him from just waking up. He climbed out of the bed, his sock covered feet hit the floor before he walked over to the window to see what it was that was happening. The noise that he had heard earlier had been a low rumbling sound that seemed to get louder this time around. Pulling the blinds from the windows apart with his fingers, Rhys saw some of the people in his line of sight start scrambling to get back inside or find a safe place to be. What the hell was happening around here?

For the third time the rumbling happened there was a violent shake coming from the ground. An earthquake? Pandora wasn’t the type of planet to get these often, only about once in a thousand or so years. Or whatever the records of earthquakes were for this planet, Rhys didn’t pay attention to that sort of stuff. 

Rhys climbed back into bed, surprised that the shaking of the ground didn’t wake up Jack. Well, not that surprised, it took a lot to wake that man up. 

“Jack,” Rhys said as the earthquake was getting more and more violent. “Jack!” He tried again but nothing. Things that were on a shelf in their room had been knocked over, and judging by how old this building was there was no telling when it would just collapse in on them. “For fucks sake, Jack, wake up!” This time Rhys started to shake him. Rhys let out a high pitched yelp of surprise when Jack unexpectedly grabbed his wrist on the hand that was used to shake him awake. Good to know that he was finally awake now. 

“What the hell are you-” Before Jack could finish his question he noticed the violent shaking of the earthquake. “What is that? Rhys, what did you do?” 

“Me?! I didn’t do anything!”

They were both silent for a moment while waiting for everything to die down. Jack had grabbed Rhys at some point and brought him close to his chest in case if anything should have happened during this earthquake, although he probably couldn’t do very much considering he was in an amount of pain from his stitches. 

Once the shaking stopped Rhys pulled himself out of Jack’s grasp to look back outside the window. People were slowly starting to appear from their homes or the buildings that they were in and when they deemed it that everything was okay they went back to doing whatever it was they were doing like nothing even happened. How long have these earthquakes been going on? If they were going on for a while why didn’t Jack or anyone at Helios have any idea that it was happening in the first place. So much was happening in an extremely short amount of time so it was hard for Rhys to focus on just one thing right now. 

When he turned around to look back at Jack he saw that he was picking at his stitches, he didn’t even look concerned about what just happened. “Jack, stop that. They’re gonna get infected!” 

“They’re not gonna get infected…” Jack mumbled before pulling his shirt back down over them. “That certainly was somethin’ though, huh kiddo?”

“Is that all you’re going to say about that? Pandora hasn’t had an earthquake in like… years! Aren’t you a bit concerned?” 

Jack shrugged his left shoulder as if he couldn’t give two fucks about this planet. “I mean, we almost got killed by the people in this town, almost everyone hates and wants to kill me. So, not really.” 

Rhys narrowed his eyes at him in frustration. “That’s not true and you know it. You’ve been working for years to try to make this place better. I mean… you may not be doing it in the best ways but if you didn’t care about it you wouldn’t have put so much time into it.”

“Alright, alright. No need to get your colorful socks in a bunch there, princess. Yes, I’m confused, that’s a better word to put it.” He stood up from the bed, walking over to the window that was behind Rhys to get a look outside. “Doesn’t look like anything was too badly damaged. Everyone is acting like it didn’t just happen.”  He backed up away from it when he saw that Isaac guy start walking past their building. Did not want to cross that guy while he was injured. “Why wasn’t I aware of this, Rhysie?” He was mostly talking to himself at that point with his hands on his hips while lost in thought. 

There was a small creak coming from behind their temporary bedroom door that put Jack in full attack mode. He quickly yet quietly grabbed his pistol from the table on their bedside and had it pointed at the door before it was even opened. Nice to see that Jack’s paranoia hadn’t changed at all… Rhys moved over behind him just to be sure if it did turn out to be some crazy bandit trying to kill them. It was times like this where he wished he knew how to actually use a gun instead of stupid finger guns back up on Helios, that was good for nothing down here on Pandora. 

Unfortunately along with Jack’s paranoia comes his itchy trigger finger. Once that doorknob moved an inch he shot towards the door even though it hadn’t even been opened yet. Rhys has flinched at that, grabbing tighter on the back of Jack’s clothes. With the gun still pointed at the door, this time he waited to see who it was before shooting it again. If that person had brains they would realize to either run away or be cautious when entering the room knowing that there was a gun ready to fire on the other side. 

“What the hell are you doing?!” Anton’s voice came from the other side of the door just as he opened it fully. 

Oh, right. It seemed to have slipped Jack’s mind that the doctor was still here too. Oops. 

“My bad,” Jack said halfheartedly as he lowered his pistol when Anton was in the doorframe. “Can’t help but be a little paranoid around here when, ya’know. Everyone wants your head on a stick.” 

“Which roughly translates to him apologizing,” Rhys added in quickly. He didn’t want to take a chance on anyone killing them before they left. Even though Anton seemed like a pretty decent guy and did mean all he did about helping them, they had no clue what would push him over for him to betray them. 

“You guys alright? Are you hurt? How are your stitches?” 

“Yes, no, and they’re fine. Thanks, doc,” Jack said as he put a hand over his stitches. Just the thought of them made the area ache a little. 

“How long have you been having these earthquakes for?” Rhys blurted out. 

“Hmm…” The doc paused a bit to think about it, trying to remember when their first one had occurred. “Probably less than a month, but they’re not earthquakes.”

“Then what the hell are they?” Jack asked as he crossed his arms. “I don’t like to be out of the loop of Pandora, I’m trying to save this place you know. Because I’m a hero.” 

Rhys rolled his eyes. 

“A hero? I don’t think heroes get almost executed on the first settlement they arrive at, don’tcha think?” Anton shook his head lightly. “No, what you felt was Anatoliy and his gang of bandits. They’ve been destroying all they can of Pandora to find that damn vault key. They don’t care who they hurt as long as they find the key and the Vault itself.”

“They have to be the assholes who destroyed Helios!” Jack assumed with a huge, dark smirk on his face. “Oooh I can’t wait to get my hands around Anatoliy’s throat and strangle him to death. I’m gonna have a real good time with him and his little gang of bandits. Where would I find him?” 

Anton chuckled. “I have no idea, they’re not in one spot for too long. At least his bandits aren’t. I’m afraid I can’t help you there. Your best bet is to find one of the bandits and get them to tell you themselves.” 

“That’s exactly what we’ll do! C’mon, Rhysie. Time’s a wastin’.” Without any other warning, Jack gathered up his other stuff and left the building with Rhys about twenty steps behind. 

Rhys had thanked Anton before actually following Jack. He couldn’t spot him through the crowd of people and it was starting to give him a bit of an anxiety attack, around here he couldn’t help but keep Jack on a close eye in case anything were to happen to him. Hell, he wasn’t even Handsome Jack yet he was still getting glares because he was Hyperion. That was great, one wrong move and it would be over for him too. 

As Rhys moved through the crowd to try to find the CEO he had finally found him at a little marketplace shop trying to buy things with the little money that they had on them. He was happy he found him because there was NO way he was going to start calling out Jack’s name to try and find him. That was basically suicide for both of them.

When he walked up to him Jack was buying more ammo for his guns and some medical stuff for his stitches when he needed them later on. The last thing he wanted was to be trapped in the middle of Pandora’s wasteland with an infection. That was an instant death. 

“Hey, kiddo. Meant to ask, pumpkin, but how’s your ECHO working?” Jack poked the side of Rhys’ head where the port was until his hand was slapped away. 

Rhys grunted, he hated when Jack did stuff like that. “Lemme check…” 

After turning it on it seemed a bit glitchy and acted like it was about to shut down on its own any second which caused Rhys to get that mini anxiety attack again. He let out a sigh of relief when it focused itself in and everything was working perfectly. 

“Fine. It’s fine.” 

“Great, I didn’t want to buy a stupid map. Laaame.” Jack smacked down the money that he had on him before walking away with the newly acquired stuff that was just purchased. “I had to convince him to not shoot me in the head,” Jack explained to Rhys as they were walking away to the entrance of the settlement. “Pandorian’s are fuckin’ insane.”  


	4. Chapter 4

The sun of Pandora was starting to set, making the sky a dark blue-ish purple color. Rhys thought it was a beautiful sight to see, but Jack, on the other hand, thought that he was obsessing over nothing and was getting irritated by him. Like, for fucks sake, they had a wonderful view of Eplis from his own office. Although Rhys probably didn’t see it much due to the fact that he was always laying face down on Jack’s desk. That was a better view to Jack than Eplis anyways. 

Jack grunted loudly, he felt a small pinch at his side where the stitches were located. He was hoping that they would hold long enough until they were able to settle down for the night. Something that they should do soon actually since they had no idea what could be running out here in the night. Skags probably. Lots and lots of Skags. Dirty little bastards… 

He glanced at Rhys to see the younger man yawn while rubbing his eyes. They were both starting to get exhausted from their long walk, maybe it was time to just pick a spot to lay down for the night. Besides, it seemed like a safe place to sleep. However, ‘seemed’ and ‘is’ has a huge difference in Jack’s eyes compared to Rhys who would just kill to plop down anywhere right now just to get off of his feet. Well, ‘kill’ as in maybe killing a bug; not a big bug, maybe like an ant or something. 

“Jaaack…” Rhys whined after he let out a long dramatic sigh. “I’m tiiiired… Can we stop for the night?” He heard the CEO grunt something under his breath but said nothing in response. So he took that as a no. “I mean, we haven’t seen anything for miles. I’m sure it will be fine to make a camp or something. Pleaaase?” 

“Rhysie. Baby. There are things you just can’t see, pumpkin. You have no idea what could be camouflaging itself in the dark. You always have to stay on your toes.” 

Rhys threw his head back while letting out yet another overdramatic sigh. “You are just being paranoid! There’s most likely nothing out there!” 

“I’m paranoid for a reason, kiddo. Once you’ve been stabbed in the back as many times as I have and know what I went through you’ll see why I’m like this.” 

That was something that Jack never brought up before. In fact, Rhys didn’t really know much about Jack’s past at all besides he was a low-level programmer before becoming the CEO of Hyperion. He didn’t know any of his past experiences, relationships, nothing. He was the type of guy to keep to himself even though Rhys had been an open book and told him everything about his life. 

“Yeah?” Rhys started to say, he didn’t know if he should try to dig up Jack’s past but it was worth a shot. Besides, the worst the could do was yell at him, right? Well, no… He could also get shot in the head, like, a thousand times. Just a thought. “I wouldn’t know,” he continued, “You never really told me about your past too much.”

Jack just grunted in response. Honestly, Rhys didn’t know what to expect from actually saying that. It wasn’t like Jack was the type of person to spill his entire life story right on the table. 

“Yeah, and there is a reason I haven’t. Let’s keep it that way.”

Rhys couldn’t help but let out a frustrating groan. “We have been dating for almost two years, Jack but you still can’t tell me much about who you were!”

“There is a reason, you little shit. Now stop asking before I put a bullet between your eyes!” 

Rhys rolled his eyes but did keep his mouth shut to refrain from even speaking to Jack. He didn’t understand why he was acting like this. It wasn’t like Rhys was going to see Jack differently if he were to spill what happened to him. Or could it possibly be that it was more dramatic than he had originally thought it out to be. Rhys had decided mentally that he would stop asking about what his hostility was all about and leave Jack to his past. 

“Can we please stop for the night? I’m really tired.” Rhys clinged onto Jack’s arm while flashing him a puppy dog look that would normally work on him from time to time. 

“This way,” Jack said as he grabbed onto Rhys’ robotic hand, he lead him over to a pair of large boulders that would hide them a little bit from anything that may be out to hunt that night. “This should suffice, right? If not, too bad this is where we’re staying.”

They both sat down on the cold ground trying to make themselves as comfortable as possible at this point, even though the ground wasn’t the most comfortable place to be. Today has been wasted by walking around not really knowing where they were going, but Jack wanted to get as far away from that settlement as he possibly could. He was paranoid about that Isaac guy following them from the settlement then killing them, or trying to anyways. Ever since they left Jack had his hand on his pistol in case anything decides to jump out at them. 

Jack leaned back against one of the boulders and closed his eyes to try and relax, he was getting so stressed out over nothing and he needed it to stop. It felt like he was about to drift off to sleep until he felt something nudging at his side. He opened an eye and looked down at his side to see Rhys snuggling up close to him. He was shivering from the sudden drop in the temperature, god this sucked. Rhys just wanted to be back at home in Jack’s penthouse sitting in a warm bath without giving a single thought to Pandora. What he would do to have that right at this moment. 

The thoughts that were running through his head right now were ridiculous… He was thinking about what he would feel like if were to freeze to death out here. Since frostbite numbed you the fuck up maybe it wouldn’t be so bad in the end. No matter how close Rhys tried getting to Jack he still couldn’t warm up. That’s how it is in the movies, right? The closer you get to someone the warmer you’ll get? Well that was a damn dirty lie because it wasn’t working. 

Or, actually, it was starting to work, he suddenly felt a huge pile of warmth wrap around him. Well, maybe it did work after all. ...Or he was getting hypothermia and he really was gonna die out here. 

“Jack! I’m dying!”

Jack hummed as he ran a hand through Rhys’ hair as if he didn’t really care for what he said. “Why’s that?” 

“I have hypothermia! I’m dying! Tell my kids I love them.”

“Okay there are a couple things wrong with what you said there, kiddo. One; you don't have any kids so who am I supposed to tell? Loader Bot? Second; it’s not cold enough out here for you to get hypothermia. And third; I put my coat on you so you would stop shaking. So you need to relax.” 

“Oh…” Rhys said with a smile, nervous chuckle. “Well, uh… Thanks, babe.” He wrapped the heavy coat around him  so all the heat would be trapped inside. The fact that it smelled like his boyfriend made it 10x better. “Aren’t you cold though?” 

“Nah, I have like, three other layers under that coat so I’m good.” He wrapped an arm around Rhys’ shoulders to bring him closer to his side. “Feelin’ alright now?” 

“Kinda I guess…”

“Ooookay… Something’s eating at cha. What is it?”

Rhys sighed then looked up at Jack who looked slightly concerned, or maybe he was really concerned. It was hard to read Jack sometimes which was incredibly frustrating. “It’s just… God, Jack. What if I could’ve saved them?”

“Uh… What are you talking about?”

“Vaughn and Yvette. What if I could have saved them?”

“Not this again… For the last time there wasn’t anything you could do about it, Rhys. When are you gonna get that through your thick skull? Look, I’m sorry you lost your friends, I get that you’re upset about it and that’s fine but you couldn’t do anything about it!” 

“I could’ve tried something if you didn’t force me out of there!”

“Do you hear yourself talk? If you didn’t leave you would have died with them.”

“For once could you at least try to be of some comfort?” Rhys snapped at his boyfriend.

Psh, comfort? Jack never comforted anybody in his entire life so he had no idea how he would go about it. Although, he did love Rhys with every fiber of his being so it was worth it to try to cheer him up. But, fuck… What was he supposed to say? ‘Oh, sorry about your friends. Lets fuck.” That was as close to comfort as Jack could get but he had a strong feeling that it wouldn’t help much, in fact, it would probably piss him off even more. 

“You…” Jack started to say while trying to collect his thoughts at the same time. He could feel Rhys’ eyes looking up at him while waiting for him to say something. “You’re pretty… special… If you keep trying you’ll hit the moon and… something something… stars. I dunno, are these doin’ anything for ya?” 

While the attempt was nice it just didn’t really help Rhys too much because it wasn’t too relevant on how he was feeling. Of course he knew that Jack never had to help anyone emotionally before so he didn’t expect too much, but at least it was something. He curled up closer to Jack’s side, wrapping his arms around his torso. 

“Do you feel better?” Jack asked him without sounding too confident. 

“Yes, babe. Thank you.” 

“Damn straight! Because I’m your hero!” There was a huge smile on Jack’s face at his newfound confidence for comforting.

“Of course you are.” Rhys leaned up to kiss Jack on the cheek. 

Although, being the little shit he is, Jack quickly moved so Rhys kissed him on the lips instead of on the cheek where it was meant to be. Rhys blushed heavily as he deepened the kiss by pulling the CEO closer, wrapping an arm around his neck. Jack moved to lay down on the ground, he pulled Rhys on top of him all while not breaking the kiss even for a second. 

There was something that frustrated Jack during the two years the two of them have been dating and it was that he could never properly show his emotions towards the younger man. He never felt so strongly for anyone else besides himself before and, dammit, he wanted to prove it to Rhys. Just buying him things alone all the time didn’t seem to live up to the standards of what he could be doing instead. Since they both worked so much nowadays it was hard to get any time alone to be intimate. They were either fucking each other or arguing over petty things throughout the day and it was something that Jack wished that he could change but had no idea how to do that. 

“Rhys,” Jack breathed as he broke the kiss. He couldn’t help but smile when he saw how red Rhys’ face was now. “I… You know I love you, right?” 

He took Jack’s hand and put it on his cheek, leaving it there. “I love you too, Jack. Thanks for trying to cheer me up.”

“I’m a hero, baby. That’s what we do.”

* * *

 

They must have been comfortable enough to be able to fall asleep on that long night of Pandora. Rhys had fallen asleep while lying on top of Jack still wearing his coat, god, he was so comfortable. They haven’t cuddled like this in a long time, he just wished that they could’ve been this close when they lived up in Jack’s penthouse on Helios before all that crazy shit went down. Oh well, it’s better to have it now than to not have it in the first place. 

Rhys scrunched up his face when he felt someone’s breath on his face, it was annoying him. He thought that maybe it was just Jack snoring on him again, but… he didn’t hear anything. He opened his echo-eye to see an Alpha Skag sniffing rather close to his face. Oh god, oh god… What was he supposed to do? If he moved too much the Alpha Skag may rip his face off. Oh god… 

“Pst… Jack?” Rhys whispered to his boyfriend who was still sleeping underneath him. How was he supposed to get his attention without moving too much? “Jack.” Rhys lightly kicked him in the shin, causing him to snort loudly out of his sleep. 

When Jack opened his eyes everything was blurry but he could see the Alpha Skag standing clearly next to them. “What the fuck?!” He shouted. 

The Skag howled at the sudden noise while baring its large teeth at them to show that it was prepared to attack them at will. Jack shoved Rhys to his opposite side where he would be out of the Skag path. He grabbed the pistol at his hip, shooting the Alpha Skag right in its ugly mug sending blood and brains everywhere. It mostly got on Jack’s mask rather than anywhere else. The Skag’s lifeless body fell to its side only twitching slightly from the last few surviving nerve endings.

“You alright, cupcake?” Jack asked Rhys as he stood up. “It didn’t hurt you, did it?” He held out his hand to Rhys who took it and stood up. 

“I’m fine, thanks.” 

Jack grumbled under his breath something about how the Skag was filled with more blood in its head than brains. He touch his mask with his finger tips just to see blood covering them now. Ugh… that was disgusting. Well, more so in Rhys’ eyes than Jack’s, Jack didn’t really see an issue with all the blood on his mask. Rhys, on the other hand, felt like he was gonna vomit if he had to keep looking at it. 

Jack could see the discomfort within Rhys which caused him to smirk. “Rhysie, give me a kiss.”

“No! Go away!” He shouted while trying to push the CEO away from him who was actually trying to kiss him with the Skag brains all over him. “Jack that’s gross! Go wash it off!”

He looked over his shoulder to see a small lake. Well, how convenient for them. “C’mon, baby.” He grabbed Rhys’ hand, leading them over to said lake where they both removed their clothes before getting into the warm water. “God, finally some relief from this hellhole of a planet.”

Rhys’ entire face turned pink from being naked in the lake with Jack. Even though they’ve been dating for so long there were still some things that he wouldn’t get use to, such as seeing him naked. 

“Why don’t you just take of your-” Rhys clamped his mouth shut when Jack shot him a glare. He had been trying to wash his mask by splashing water on his face but it wasn’t getting the blood off of them like he had hoped it would. “Here, let me…” He moved towards Jack, gently grabbing his mask and pulling it off. Surprisingly Jack didn’t protest, but he was extremely tense. “See, now you can just scrub it off. Not that bad, right?” 

It felt like the entire world of Pandora was staring at him and the Vault scar over his face. Goddammit, why did Rhys do that? He felt like strangling his boyfriend to death while holding him under the water until he was fuckin’ dead. However… a part of him felt kinda… free from his mask? Dammit, it would’ve felt better if Rhys wasn’t there to see it. 

He snatched his mask out of Rhys’ hands with a pissed off look on his face. “Thanks, but take my mask off again and I’ll murder you slowly and painfully. Okay, pumpkin?” 

Ignoring Jack’s threat, Rhys cupped his face in his hands then slowly started to kiss him. Jack curled his fingers through Rhys’ hair as he forced his tongued into his mouth to deepen the kiss. 

Gun shots rang in the distance causing Rhys to let out a high pitched scream of surprise, clinging onto Jack for dear life. 

“C’mon, kiddo,” Jack said as he put his now clean mask back on over his face.

“W-what. Where the hell are you going?!” 

“Just c’mon.”   

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Check out my Tumblr, guys! :)  
> http://rhacktrash.tumblr.com/

It was hard trying to move quickly yet quietly towards the sound of the gunshot because of Rhys. He was clinging onto Jack’s arm extremely tight and didn’t show any signs of letting go anytime soon, no matter how many times Jack tried shaking him off Rhys’ grip seemed to get even tighter. Rhys didn’t want to get left behind so he thought that this was the only safe way to travel. Even though it was starting to greatly annoy Jack. At first he was thought it was kinda cute because Rhys was putting all his trust into him but when there was a possibility that he couldn’t get to his pistol quick enough because of the grip on his arm was where he had to draw the line.

“Get off!” Jack hissed as he jerked his arm away from Rhys’ tight grasp. “You could get us killed.”

“What if I get lost? What if they’re more psychos? What if-”

God, this kid was talking too much, Jack thought before clamping one of his large hands over Rhys’ mouth, forcing them both down on the ground behind a large rock. “Will. You. Shut up?” Jack snapped in a whisper as he nodded towards a bandit walking around totally unaware of their presence. “Think I can shoot him in the head with one bullet?”

“No, wait.” Rhys grabbed Jack’s hand that was starting to go towards the pistol at his hip. “He looks… different than the other bandits. Doesn’t he?”

Jack peered around the rock to get a better look at the unsuspecting bandit. It did look like he was wearing a uniform of some sort. There was a patch on his arm that Jack couldn’t make out from here. “Now that you mention it… he does.”

“Should we follow him?”

Jack didn’t say anything to his suggestion, instead he just nodded. He stood up, but clearly he was on guard mode still as he motioned for Rhys to follow him. His hand was on his pistol in case anything were to happen. It was hard for Rhys to resist the urge to grab onto Jack again to make himself feel safe, but he had a feeling that if he did that now while they were sneaking around following someone he would get punched in the throat. Right in the fuckin’ jugular. That would be great…

* * *

 

The whole “following someone to see where they were going” was the most boring experience that Rhys had ever had. The bandit must have stopped about ten times before they even got anywhere interesting. At one point the bandit ended up taking a nap, and Jack being who he was had to go ahead and get things rolling again. He had to use his pistol to get the guy to wake up to get going again. Jack shot a good round into the sky before the bandit woke up before he hit the ground running back to the bandit camp he led them to.

It was a small bandit camp with a few huts, it honestly wouldn’t be considered a real camp. More like a rest stop to be honest. Jack watched the bandit run into his camp to warn the others, who were wearing the exact same outfit as he was, that there may or may not be someone following him. The good thing was that he didn’t completely catch onto them on their trip here. This was going to be exciting.

“Wh-what are you doing?” Rhys asked, sounding extremely worried as he watched Jack reload his favorite pistol. He knew that he was going to go through and wipe the entire camp clean from bandits, but maybe if he asked it would get Jack to rethink of what he was about to do. Well, what did Rhys honestly expect? It was Jack. He didn’t think before he did anything.

“You ask a lot of questions on obvious things, Rhysie,” Jack answered without even looking at his boyfriend as he was too busy counting out his bullets. “What does it look like I’m doing?”

“You look like you’re… Jack, please don’t. I’m begging you not to.”

Jack turned to face him with a smirk on his face. “Maybe if you get down on your knees and beg me I’ll change my mind about it.” Rhys rolled his eyes as he leaned back against the run down broken hut they were hiding behind, he folded his arms over his chest as he was watching Jack in silence. “Don’t be that way, kiddo. If you want to suck my cock that’d be cool too.” When Jack saw the glare that Rhys was giving him he rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Oh, yeah. Here. While you were bitching on Helios I grabbed this for you.” Digging in his pocket he pulled out a stun baton that Rhys was so used to on this planet. “Since you kick ass with it.”

A small blush crawled up Rhys’ face, it was rare that Jack complimented him, even if it was as minor as that may have seemed it was still a lot for Jack to say. He grabbed the stun baton from the CEO mumbling a small ‘thank you’ under his breath. One of Jack’s large hands wrapped its way around Rhys’ hips, bringing him closer to him.

“I love you, Rhysie.” Jack planted a kiss on Rhys’ forehead. “You can either stay here or be a hero. Like me!”

“You’re not a hero-”

Jack didn’t want to hear that he’s ‘not a hero’ bullshit, because he knew he was, even though other people couldn’t see what he saw. Instead, the hero ran out from behind the worn down hut and made his way into the bandit camp with his pistol blazing. God, he could be so stupid, Rhys thought as he looked down at the stun baton that he was so familiar with. All he could hear were gunshots but couldn’t make out who was who at this point, but knowing Jack he could take care of this on his own. On the other hand, he felt somewhat guilty if he didn’t do anything but stand by while his boyfriend did all the work. Again. There were times where Rhys felt like he was holding Jack back and it was a horrible feeling, he wanted to do something to help for once.

With his grip tightening around the stun baton Rhys decided that it was time to stop being so scared of conflict and finally get out there and help Jack on their journey. Besides, they were on Pandora after all, he couldn’t stay hiding the entire time they were here.

Okay, this can’t be too bad, Rhys kept telling himself as he ran out from behind the run down hut and towards the bandit camp. There were dead bodies scattered throughout the camp, but he didn’t see any signs of Jack. God, his anxiety was starting to get to him, but he could still hear gun fire so that had to be a good sign, right? Guess it depends on how you look at it. No, he couldn’t let his anxiety get to him this time. He needed to find Jack to make sure that he was okay.

Walking through it further Rhys was about to start calling out for his boyfriend, but when he saw Jack in action he let out a sigh of relief. Jack was too focused on trying to kill a bandit hiding behind another hut that he had no clue that someone was trying to sneak up behind him. This time it was Rhys’ turn to save Jack. This time he would be the damsel in distress.

Although, Rhys couldn’t do much to stop the bandit from sneaking up on Jack besides shouting at him about it. That would gather unwanted attention to him though, could potentially be dangerous if there were other bandits lurking around that they didn’t know about. Oh. Wait. Duh, that was something he could do.

Rhys turned on the stun baton, now, he had seen this happen in so many movies but he had no idea if it would work in real life. Was it worth the try? Hell yes. Was there a chance that it could potentially hit Jack instead? Possibly. Then surely he would punched in the jugular. Well, actually no. It was a guarantee that he would end up dead by either the bandits or Jack from strangling him for being an idiot.

Reaching his arm back, Rhys threw the stun baton as hard as he could towards the creeping bandit that Jack still didn’t notice. It was spinning in the air quickly towards the bandit, Rhys’ heart was in his throat as he watched it aim towards both Jack and the bandit. God, he hoped it would work out like he had wanted.

The bandit saw the activated stun baton in the corner of his eye, so when he turned to face it he had no time to act. The bandit screamed loudly when the stun baton implanted itself into his eye socket. Well, shit. That was a little more extreme than Rhys had wanted, but whatever worked.

Not long after, Jack finally killed that stubborn little bandit that kept playing peek-a-boo with him from the huts. When he turned around and saw the bandit at his feet having a literal seizure from the stun baton landed in his brain he couldn’t help but laugh as if it was the funniest thing in the world. He pointed and laughed even harder when foam started spilling from the corner of his mouth. God, his humor was terrible…

“God, kiddo. You did great!” Jack said as he wiped a tear from the corner of his eye from laughing so hard. “Although if you hit me on accident I would have killed you.”

“Preeetty sure it would’ve killed you first, babe,” Rhys said as he retrieved the stun baton from the bandits eye socket. “But thanks.”

Jack was about to say something else to Rhys, but he saw a bandit with a limp behind his boyfriend. “Hang on, pumpkin.” He walked passed him with his gun out towards the bandit. “Hold up there, kiddo,” Jack called mockingly as he shoved the bandit to the ground. God, he was whimpering. Pathetic. “Where do ya think you’re going?” He asked with a smirk on his face.

“Please don’t kill me!” The bandit shouted. He covered his face with his arms as if that would protect him from a bullet. “I-I hated working for these idiots! They-they are sooo weird!”

“Shut up,” Jack said then shot the bandit in the knee cap. He knelt down next next to him, grabbing his hair and jerking his head back so he was looking up at the CEO. “You all have these patches on your coats.” He used his pistol to point at the Vault Key patch on the man’s coat. “Working for Anatoliy?”

“I… I... “

“Spit it out, princess.” The grip on the bandits hair grew tighter, causing him to yelp in pain.

“Y-yes! Yes we all work for Anatoliy!”

Jack glanced up at Rhys then back down to the bandit. “Look, I want to talk to this douche bag. Where’s his camp?”

“I can’t-” Jack turned the safety off on his pistol, causing the bandit’s eyes to grow wide. “I mean… Okay, okay! Wait! You can find his camp if you keep heading East. If you find an old Catch-A-Ride then you’re going the right way and should be there shortly after.”

“Did you get all that, Rhysie?”

“Yes.”

“Great.” Jack let go of the bandit before standing up. He pointed his pistol at the bandit’s face then pulled the trigger. Brains splattered everywhere causing Rhys to feel absolutely disgusted. “We’re gonna kill that bastard.”

“You have no idea what he’s capable of though…” Rhys whined as they started heading East like the bandit told them to.

“Whatever, I’m ready for anything.”

* * *

 

Walking, walking, walking. That’s all they’ve been doing for the past three or four hours without any breaks. God, Rhys was getting antsy, he wanted to lay down and take a nap for at least an hour, but Jack wouldn’t have it. Nope, they had to keep going as far as they could before nightfall. God, this sucked!

“Baaabe,” Rhys whined again as he latched himself to Jack’s arm. “Can we please just stop and nap for… I dunno… five minutes?”

“Nope, lets keep going.”

“Jaaack…”

The CEO stopped walking unexpectedly. He was getting so sick and tired of hearing Rhys complaining over and over and over again. Honestly, there were so many things that were happening and all Rhys could think about was when they could nap next? Was he being serious? This is Pandora, where everything wants to kill you.  Hell, even plants could kill you if you aren’t being cautious enough. Or maybe I’m just being paranoid about that… Jack thought with a slight shake of his head.

“Will you shut up!” Jack shouted in frustration. “I get it! You want to nap, get over it. We’re not napping yet so you might as well get used to it.”

Rhys’ face turned red from embarrassment as he hated it when Jack snapped at him or got mad at him it made him feel pathetic or useless. He was supposed to make Jack feel relaxed, to make him feel happy, but now he felt like he was just in the way. How was he supposed to make this up to Jack? Maybe he should just shut up instead. Then at least Jack couldn’t blame him for anything anymore.

“Sorry…” Rhys mumbled as he folded his arms across his chest.

“Finally…”

Jack started walking again with Rhys following silently behind him. It was hard for him to not complain as much as he wanted to, but he didn’t only because he knew it would piss off Jack if he did actually keep his mouth shut. Even though his legs and feet were in so much pain from standing and walking for so long Rhys dealt with it. If Jack was going to be in a bitchy mood than so can Rhys.

The silence between them was fine at first in Jack’s mind, but that only lasted for like, twenty minutes before he missed his boyfriend talking. He always hated complete silence, a time like this silence _may_ be a good thing but Jack was over it. He was actually _missing_ Rhys’ stupid complaining for a nap or whatever it was he was bitching about.

Squinting at Rhys, Jack reached over to his unsuspecting boyfriend to flick his port on the side of his head. Rhys furrowed his brows staring straight ahead as he was slightly annoyed at that but he still wasn’t going to give in to him. He had to try his absolute best to ignore Jack no matter what.

“Rhys,” Jack whined when Rhys didn’t even so much as react to him. “Rhysss….” He tried again but still nothing. “Rhys! I swear to God! Pay attention to me!”

On the outside Rhys wasn’t showing any reaction to Jack whatsoever, not even a proud smirk made his way onto his face because it took a lot for Jack start _begging_ for his attention. That was the point though, Jack was trying to make Rhys to react to him in anyway even giving a smug look on his face would work for Jack but the younger man was giving him nothing to work with here.

With a small pout Jack folding his arms over his chest. He was about to take this up a notch or two. “You know what, Rhysie… I don’t need you anyways. Maybe I’ll end up dying out here. Without you. Just like your friends did in Helios.”

Jack’s harsh words slapped Rhys across the face with full force. He stopped in his tracks, turning to face Jack with a scowl on his face. What was Jack’s problem anyways? Of course, Jack being the asshole he was had a huge smirk on his face as if he was proud of the statement he had purposely made to hurt his boyfriend.

“What the fuck is your problem Jack?” Rhys demanded, stepping back away from the CEO. “Are you really so mad about me shutting up like you told me to that you had to say something like that?”

Jack simply shrugged. “It got your attention, didn’t it?”

“You’re acting like it’s MY fault that Helios got destroyed and killed my friends. You know what, Jack? This whole time I was blaming myself for not doing something about saving them when I realized it’s not even my fault.”

“Then whose fault is it?” Judging by Jack’s tone of voice Rhys needed to be extremely careful about his next choice of words because one wrong sentence could possibly put a bullet through his skull.

“It’s probably your own damn fault! Just like everything else!” Rhys shouted at Jack. Deep in the back of his mind he knew that he was going to get killed over this but he honestly didn’t care. He was sick of the way Jack was treating him. Ever since they’ve been on this shit hole known as Pandora he’s been Jack’s personal punching bag.

Jack stepped closer with fire in his eyes but spoke so calmly that it actually sent a chill down Rhys’ spine. “Wanna say that one more time, cupcake?” Rhys noticed that Jack was reaching for the pistol at his hip and knew it was too late to give any apologizes.

“I said…” Rhys paused for a moment trying to decide if he should actually go through with what he said because Jack was giving him a chance to take it back. If he took it back now he would continue being Jack’s punching bag. No, that was going to stop right now. “I said it’s your own fault just like everything else that’s happened to us.”

The hand that was aching to go towards the pistol at Jack’s hip stopped itself as Jack cracked his neck with a dark, twisted smile on his face. Not good. Definitely not good. Rhys was in too deep now to back down from whatever was going to happen next, so he had to suck it up and deal with it. ...Or get killed. Whichever happens first.

“Say that _one more time_. I don’t think I heard you right.”

That was Rhys’ last chance.

“Maybe you should get some hearing aids because I said it’s your fault, Jack. This entire thing is your fault.”

Time felt like it was moving in slow motion now as Rhys felt the pit in his stomach when he saw the hand that was once going towards the pistol now turning into a fist. Well, this was it, Rhys thought as he squeezed his eyes shut tightly waiting for the blow. Being with Jack for as long as he had, Rhys should know by now that even looking at Handsome Jack the wrong way would lead to death and most likely destruction. Or, considering the fact that Handsome Jack decided against using his favorite pistol against him, he was just going to get his ass kicked. Or was going to have a slow, painful death.

There was a loud _SMACK_ sound that echoed throughout the valley when Jack’s large fist met with Rhys’ right eye. Rhys’ vision turned into green and black spots fluttering all over the place, his face felt like it was getting stabbed with a bunch of pins from Jack’s rings that were on his fingers. Even though it was only a few feet that Rhys fell to the dusty ground it felt like he was falling off a 20-story building. A small static noise pierced Rhys’ ears after his head slammed against the ground. Not only was he probably going to be blind he was sure that his cybernetics were now damaged. That was great. This is what he gets for trying to be a smartass towards Handsome Jack.

The world was spinning around Rhys as he opened his eyes, the sky looked green with the sun burning his pupils. There was a heavy feeling on his chest now and when he tried to lift his arms to push whatever it was off of him he found that he couldn’t do that either because they were pinned down. Oh shit.

Squirming from underneath Jack was useless since he was heavier and stronger than he was. “J-Jack, please…” Rhys tried begging but it wasn’t long until he felt those familiar, large hands wrapped around his throat pushing down on his windpipe. His knees were digging into his forearms painfully. This is how he was going to go.

“You had your chance to take it back, kiddo,” Jack said through a snarl as he squeezed tighter. “Now I’m going to watch you die slowly.”

“J….j...ack….” It was too hard to say anything as Rhys was trying to gasp for air but it was just making this worse as he was starting to panic. He kept trying to squirm out from underneath him even more, kicking his legs the best he could to try to do something to help himself. “I...m.. so...rry…”

“It’s too late for that, Rhysie. Ohoho, your face is starting to turn purple. How’s that air?”

Rhys threw his head back as he was starting to give up on trying to struggle free, his vision was starting to fade and the world around him started to sound like rushing water. This was it.

Suddenly the weight from his arms and chest faded, was he dead? The first thing Rhys did was flex his fingers to see if this was still real or not, since they moved with him he assumed that Jack thought he was dead and left him here for the skags to chew up. Slowly opening his eyes again the sun was still there burning his eyes, turning his head away from the sky he saw Jack walking towards something. It must have been a bandit or something because he was preparing himself to use his pistol. Rhys was starting to get a migraine due to the fact that he was gasping for air, but thank God he was still alive.

“Jack…” He called out weakly as he was reaching out for his boyfriend who turned around to face him briefly then back to whatever his focus was on originally. Rolling over, Rhys slowly pushed himself off of the ground, slightly swaying as he was becoming extremely dizzy. “Jack!” He tried again, stumbling across the valley towards him. After only two steps Rhys fell back right on his face.

The only thing that he could do now was watch from a distance to see what Jack was up to. He definitely saw someone in front of him but couldn’t make out if it was a bandit, psycho, or something else. The figure looked short though, almost looked like a…

Holy shit.

Jack pulled out his favorite pistol and put it to the child’s head.

“Jack, wait!” Rhys screamed as he forced himself back up, running towards his boyfriend. “What the hell are you doing!” He shoved Jack’s arm to move the pistol from the little girls head to prevent him from killing a _child._ “What are you doing!” He repeated loudly in almost another scream.

Jack was about to answer but he got distracted by the black eye and the choke bruises on Rhys’ neck from him. He snapped out of it. “She’s probably a spy.”

“A spy?! She’s a little girl!” After he said it, the little girl hid behind Rhys and grabbed his leg in fear of Jack and the gun that he was swinging around.

“People are crazy out here, Rhysie…”

Rolling his eyes, Rhys knelt down in front of the shaking, frightened child. “What’s your name, hon?” He asked in the most comforting voice he could muster after almost being killed by his own boyfriend. “Did he hurt you?”

“I’m… _hic…_ Scarlett… _hic…”_ She said with tears rolling down her cheeks.

“I’m Rhys. How old are you?”

“Six…”

“Where are your parents at?”

“They… _hic…_ they took them…”

“Who did?”

The girl looked down at her feet, refusing to answer the question as she was scared if she were to tell anyone they would come after her next.

Jack rolled his eyes dramatically. “Will you just spit it out already?”

“Jack!” Rhys turned back to the girl who was looking back up at him. “Who took your parents?”

“His name is… _hic…_ Anatoliy… _hic…”_

Jack’s ears perked up at the name the girl said since that was the asshole who they were hunting down. “Anatoliy, huh? Do you know how to get there?”

“Yeah… _hic…”_

“Tell us how to get there then we’ll drop you off at the nearby settlement we stayed at last time.”

“No!” She screamed as she wrapped her arms around Rhys from protection as if Jack was going to take her away. “I know how to get there! I’m not good with giving directions…”

Jack groaned in frustration as he folded his arms over his chest again. “No way, you’re not coming with us.”

“Shut up, Jack. She’s coming with us,” Rhys said as he stood up with Scarlett in his arms.

“Why are you so snappy?”

“Why am _I_ so snappy? You almost killed me, you asshole!”

“I wasn’t really going to kill you…”

“Whatever, I’m not too happy with you right now.”

Rhys started walking in the direction where Scarlett pointed at with Jack whining behind him as he followed them without saying a word.


End file.
